Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/257

 MANNERS OF THE SCYTHIANS. 24* rians of later centuries. The sword, in the literal sense of the word, "was their chief god, 1 an iron scymetar solemnly elevated upon a wide and lofty platform, which was supported on masses of fagots piled underneath, to whom sheep, horses, and a por tion of their prisoners taken in war, were offered up in sacrifice : Herodotus treats this sword as the image of the god Ares, thus putting an Hellenic interpretation upon that which he describes literally as a barbaric rite. The scalps and the skins of slain en- emies, and sometimes the skull formed into a drinking-cup, con- stituted the decoration of a Scythian warrior : whoever had not slain an enemy, was excluded from participation in the annual festival and bowl of wine prepared by the chief of each separate horde. The ceremonies which took place during the sickness and funeral obsequies of the Scythian kings (who were buried at Gerrhi, at the extreme point to which navigation extended up the Borysthenes), partook of the same sanguinary disposition. It was the Scythian practice to put out the eyes of all their slaves ; ana the awkwardness of the Scythian frame, often overloaded with fat, together with extreme dirt of body, and the absence of all discriminating feature between one man and another, complete the brutish portrait. 2 Mare's milk (with cheese made from it) belonged to the Indo-European family, it would be requisite that we should know something of their language. But the Scythian language may be said to be wholly unknown ; and the very few words which are brought to our knowledge do not tend to aid the Indo-European hypothesis. 1 See the story of the accidental discovery of this Scythian sword when lost, by Attila, the chief of the Huns ( Prisons ap. Jomandem do Rebus Geticis, c. 35, and in Eclog. Legation, p. 50). Lncian in the Toxaris (c. 38, vol. ii, p. 546, Hemst.) notices the worship of the akinakes, or scymetar, by the Scythians in plain terms without inter- posing the idea of the god Ares : compare Clemen. Alexand. Protrept. p. 25, Syl. Ammianns Marcellinus, in speaking of the Alani (xxxi, 2), as well as Pomponius Mela (ii. 1) and Solinus (c. 20), copy Herodotus. Am- inianus is more literal in his description of the Sarmatian sword-worship (xvii, 12), "Eductisqne mucronibus, quos pro numinibus colunt," etc. z Hcrodot. iv, 3-62, 71-75; Sophokles, CEnomaus, ap. Athcnse. ix, p. 410; Hippokrates, De Ae'rc, Locis et Aqnis, ch. vi, s. 91-99, etc. It is seldom that we obtain, in reference to the modes of life of an ancient population, two such excellent witnesses as Herodotus and Hippokratei about the Scythian.-;. Hippokrates was accustomed to sec the naked figure in it.s highest per- VOL. in. 11 16cc.